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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24166156">written in the stars</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/pseuds/lavenderlotion'>lavenderlotion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Armando Muñoz Lives, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Established Relationship, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Introspection, Light Angst, M/M, Scars, X-Men: First Class (2011)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:27:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,053</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24166156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/pseuds/lavenderlotion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m so fuckin’ sorry, Mando,” Alex whispered ‘gainst his skin, brushin’ his lips over the raised scar as gently as he could and layin’ a real careful kiss to it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Armando Muñoz/Alex Summers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>written in the stars</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightinflame/gifts">flightinflame</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For the prompt: <strong>”…on a scar.”</strong> from <a>this ask meme!</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Darwin’s skin, when they first met, had been silky smooth all over. He was nothin’ but miles and </span>
  <em>
    <span>miles </span>
  </em>
  <span>of smooth flesh with dustin’s of thick, curly hair. The centre of his chest used to have a patch of it that Alex had liked restin’ his head on. Trailin’ from his belly button into his pants had been a thin line that Alex had liked bitin’. Surroundin’ his cock there’d been a big ole bush that Alex had always loved pushin’ his face into or diggin’ ‘gainst his chin as he sucked Darwin off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’d been short hair all along his arms and his legs, ‘long with a couple curlier ones over his big toe. He had the hair on his head, which was so different from Alex’s he’d always loved playin’ with it when they lied together back in one of their rooms and away from pryin’ eyes, and in the mornin’s there’d been sharp stubble that decorated his jaw ‘fore he shaved it off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But otherwise, Darwin’s skin was completely void of any other texture Darwin. Everythin’ else was perfectly smooth and always real damn soft. Darwin’s mutation meant that he never got hurt, which meant that he didn’t have a single scar anywhere on him. It was a real contrast to Alex, who’d grown up an angry, dumbass boy who had as many scars from fights as he did from doin’ stupid shit. He had calluses on his hands from playin’ sports and doin’ labour in jail and busted up knuckles from fightin’. He had a thick scar on his hand from cuttin’ open a frozen bagel. There was another, thicker scar runnin’ up his shin from some rubble cuttin’ into his leg when he’d been explorin’ an abandoned warehouse as a dumb teenager. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And there were a shit ton more, all over his body, all ‘cause Alex had regular damn skin, was kinda an idiot, and didn’t have a mutation that made him fuckin’ impenetrable. And it... well yeah, it was a contrast, but it was a contrast Alex had always liked, ‘cause it’d made Darwin seem invisible. Alex had lost everyone he’d ever loved. The fact that Darwin didn’t even have </span>
  <em>
    <span>calluses</span>
  </em>
  <span> ‘long his palm made Alex think he’d never have to lose Darwin too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boy, had he been dead fuckin’ wrong about that one. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Losin’ Darwin had been the hardest thing Alex had ever gone through, ‘cause it was his fuckin’ fault. It’d been </span>
  <em>
    <span>his</span>
  </em>
  <span> mutation that had burrowed under Darwin’s skin and tore him apart. That hadn’t even left </span>
  <em>
    <span>ashes</span>
  </em>
  <span> behind, instead burnin’ up Darwin so wholly there wasn’t even a fuckin’ trace that he’d been alive, that Alex had ever gotten to love him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But then, by some fuckin’ God-given miracle, Darwin had come back. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That</span>
  </em>
  <span> had been somethin’ Alex expected even less than Darwin dyin’ in the first place. He’d thanked the universe every fuckin’ day since then, sayin’ a little prayer to whatever the fuck was out there when he got to wake up tucked in Darwin’s arms each mornin’, like he’d never been dead in the first place. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He said thanks, ‘cause </span>
  <em>
    <span>somethin’</span>
  </em>
  <span> had brought Darwin back to him; sure, it’d probably just been his mutation—that was what Hank and the Professor said—but Alex sometimes thought the universe had brought him back just for Alex. Life’d dealt him a shit fuckin’ hand, after all, but maybe they were tryin’ to make up for it by givin’ him back the love of his life. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Darwin </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> back, havin’ shown up at the mansion stark naked and then movin’ right into Alex’s room. They sure as hell weren’t keepin’ nothin’ a secret after Darwin had fuckin’ died. Why the hell would they try to hide that they loved each other when they’d already lost it once? That just seemed like a lot of wasted time neither of ‘em were down with. All that mattered was that Darwin was back. Different, sure, but he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>back</span>
  </em>
  <span> and Alex was takin’ all the differences in stride. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well... mostly in stride. The biggest change Alex’d had to get used wasn’t the lack of hair, seein’ as Darwin was now fuckin’ hairless from head to toe. It wasn’t the all-white eyes, either. No, the biggest fuckin’ change Alex had to stomach was the starburst scar sittin’ in the very centre of Darwin’s chest, put there by the plasma that sat under Alex’s skin and had never done nothin’ good for no one. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every single time Alex saw Darwin without a shirt, it was like a punch to his fuckin’ gut. Every single night they got into bed and Darwin tucked him up into his arms and up ‘gainst his chest just like he’d done the weeks ‘fore Alex had torn him apart, it felt like Darwin was dyin’ all over again. ‘Cause right where there used to be a patch of hair, there was now a chunk of raised skin, lighter than the rest of him, that looked like a shattered piece of glass, like Alex’s power had blasted in, or like an explosion, like Alex’s power had blasted out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Either way he looked at it, the textured skin reminded him that he’d hurt the man he loved. That he’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>killed him</span>
  </em>
  <span>—he didn’t fuckin’ care what they said, Darwin had been </span>
  <em>
    <span>dead</span>
  </em>
  <span>—and each fuckin’ night he was reminded that he’d been the reason he’d lost the love of his life. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m so fuckin’ sorry, Mando,” Alex whispered ‘gainst that very same skin, brushin’ his lips over the raised scar as gently as he could and layin’ a real careful kiss to it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Darwin didn’t say nothin’—he’d stopped tryin’ to tell Alex it wasn’t his fault a few weeks in—but he held him tighter, brushed his own kiss to Alex’s forehead, and whispered, “I love you, baby,” into the darkness of their bedroom. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Love you too,” he mumbled into Darwin’s chest, then let his eyes fall closed as he tried his very best to let sleep take him under. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>No matter what he’d done, Darwin had come back. They were together. Alex tried his best to let that truth outweigh his guilt as Darwin rubbed his back in slow, gentle strokes that made him feel like he still deserved to be loved. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>come say hi to me on <a href="https://lavender-lotion.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>!</p><p>kudos are much appreciated, but things have been really difficult lately, and a comment, as short and sweet or as sprawling and sporadic as you can manage, would be <em>greatly</em> appreciated! </p><p>i run an x-men discord server! check it out <a href="https://discord.gg/3uG3VNP">here!</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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